United Airlines passenger seen violently attacking his own seat in wild video

Bad behavior among airline passengers is unfortunately not too uncommon these days, when it seems like every other day there are headlines about unruly travelers. But while many of these stories involve passengers getting into arguments with airline crew or attacking each other, a recent incident filmed aboard a United Airlines flight showed a man violently attacking his seat, of all things.

According to South West News Servicethe incident occurred aboard a flight from Austin, TX to Los Angeles, CA on November 16. In the video below, the unnamed man can be seen repeatedly kicking his reclining seat as other passengers watched the bizarre behaviour, clearly in shock.

The clip was recorded by San Diego-based addiction counselor Gino Galofaro, who said he had been sleeping and was awakened by the commotion.

“I woke up to him kicking the seat. The flight attendant walked by a couple of times, nobody did anything,” Galofaro recalled. “I held him down and two other passengers were already zip-tied, so we zip-tied his hands and feet and strapped him to the seat.”

Galofaro noted that the flight was about 40 minutes from landing in Los Angeles when the man started acting out and that police came aboard when the plane landed. He added that he hopes to get in touch with the man’s family to see if he can offer any help.

United Airlines confirmed that there had been 76 passengers and five crew members on board the plane at the time.

“On November 16, local law enforcement officers met United flight 502 upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport after a customer was disturbed,” a spokesperson said. “We thank our crew for helping resolve the situation and working to ensure the safety of everyone on board. We have excluded this customer from future United flights.”